Apparently Apple is just one hypno-machine away from total world domination. At least, that's my first impression of their patented iTunes Spiral makeover. It is, as they say, trippy.

I'll say this for the iTunes Spiral; it could save some time. Right now your choices for viewing your library are scads of text or Cover Flow. Both perfectly functional, neither particularly exciting. What Spiral would do is break your music down into three levels of granularity. So if you're looking down a Genre vortex, you could navigate deeper into the Album abyss.

Each graphic displayed along the spiral could include pictures, graphics, text, or a combination thereof, and could take on any suitable shape (e.g., a square, rectangle, ball, circle, triangle, or diamond). For example, each graphic could include album cover art representative of a particular genre...

In some embodiments, an iPhone could receive a clockwise or counterclockwise input as from a circular or elliptical motion received on a click wheel or on a touch screen, to change the presented music... We may also have to now consider that the mention of a click wheel in this patent is also taking a "virtual" implementation into account.

You'd then spiral further down the rabbit hole until you found what you were looking for. But it doesn't stop there!

The patent also covers "Helix" and "Map" implementations, the latter of which apparently places your Rap music somewhere in the vicinity of Boise:

Is this the future of iTunes? Probably not this exactly. But you could easily see how elements from these patents—which feel a bit like the notes from a highly structured brainstorming section—could sneak their way into the interface. And if you're afraid of being put under Spiral's hypnotic spell, no fear; the patent clearly says it can be turned off at any time. Assuming you have any free will left at that point. [Patently Apple]